Article:Oracle Database 12c

Introducing
Oracle Database In-Memory

In-Memory Acceleration for the Real-Time Enterprise

Businesses must compete in today’s high-speed, always-on world where customers are more demanding than ever.

That’s easier said than done, especially when decision-makers must wait hours—in some cases, days—to extract vital information from terabytes of data deep within the enterprise. That disconnect—fast business yet plodding analytics—can force a tough choice: make a less informed decision right when it’s needed, or put the business on hold until the analytics come through.

What if you could get answers instantaneously—in seconds, not in hours or days? That would be a tremendous advantage. Executives, managers, and all employees would be able to pinpoint opportunities faster, negotiate smarter, and engage customers better.

“It’s orders-of-magnitude faster—like the difference between walking and flying in a plane,” says Juan Loaiza, Oracle SVP Systems Technology, who participated in the June 10 launch event along with Ellison, Oracle executive vice president Andy Mendelsohn, and Oracle partners and customers.

Get real-time data analysis with sub-second transactions, such as 1000x or more speedup for Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle's PeopleSoft. (4 slides)

An innovative, dual-format in-memory architecture combines the best of row format and column format to simultaneously deliver fast analytics and efficient OLTP.

Any existing Oracle Database-compatible application can automatically take advantage of columnar in-memory processing, without additional programming or application changes.

The real-time responsiveness enabled by Oracle Database In-Memory can deliver insights at the moment important decisions need to be made. This blink-of-an-eye performance is made possible without having to funnel data to a separate database or change your current business applications.

“We’ve made it extremely simple to adopt,” says Loaiza. “We don’t want to make people rewrite their applications to get new functionality.”

This high-impact, low-disruption approach has long guided Oracle through successive technology advancements, including database clustering, multitenant architecture, and Flash storage.

“We know our customers have huge investments in applications and our goal is to move them forward as technology moves forward without changing their application,” says Loaiza.

Ideal for Mixed Workloads

Oracle Database In-Memory is designed for mixed workloads. Its unique dual-format approach accelerates analytics while ensuring that the most up-to-date transactional data is constantly available—no moving of data out to a separate database.

“Oracle Database In-Memory drastically cuts the reporting time and frees the database to quickly handle transactions,” Loaiza says. “While other products are designed just for analytics, Oracle Database In-Memory works well for both—it’s a huge value.”

Performance on Databases of Any Size

Oracle Database In-Memory lets CIOs and IT teams use a mix of storage technologies to get optimal performance while keeping storage costs down. It does not require that all data fit into memory.

“That’s another key difference for Oracle customers,” says Loaiza. “They don’t have to put all the data in expensive DRAM. They can easily distribute it to where it makes most sense.”

With Oracle Database In-Memory, you decide what data goes into memory—with no limits or restraints from the software. The rest of your data is stored in less-expensive Flash or on disk. Oracle Database In-Memory works seamlessly with them all.

Real-Time Answers, Smarter Decisions

Oracle Database In-Memory’s flexibility—supporting both analytics and transactions while utilizing the most optimal storage media—will help organizations get even more value from their Oracle Database investments.

“Our business users are under considerable pressure to keep up with competitive demands,” says one Oracle customer. “Our reporting, analytics, discovery, and predictive applications all need to perform better—and process queries in a matter of seconds, when our business users need new insights immediately.”

“Oracle has spent decades developing the most-advanced technologies for database scale-up and scale-out, storage tiering, recovery, and integrated security,” says Loaiza. “All that works transparently with Oracle Database In-Memory, so you can get orders of magnitude better performance and don’t have to give up anything that you already have.”

With Oracle Database In-Memory, your business can make data-driven decisions, respond instantly to customer demands, and continuously optimize key processes. Your organization can become a real-time enterprise.